Contractor Killed By Exploding Fire Extinguisher Inside Chelsea USPS Facility

A contractor was killed by an exploding fire extinguisher as he was recharging fire extinguishers inside the Morgan General Mail Facility postal building at 341 Ninth Avenue in Chelsea Wednesday morning.

Shrapnel from the explosion pierced the man’s neck, police said. He was taken to Lenox Health Greenwich Village and pronounced dead.

Another worker, a 26-year-old man, was also injured when his right arm was lacerated by shrapnel, police said. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition.

The 911 call came in around 10 a.m., police said. The identities of the men were not immediately released Wednesday.

The explosion happened on the fourth floor of the massive building, which is an active mail facility, the city Department of Buildings and the United States Postal Service said. Developer Tishman Speyer leased the top floors last October and was building commercial office space, though investigators say the contractors were working on the postal side of the building where they were recharging fire extinguishers.

"DOB inspectors on scene (at) 341 9th Avenue have determined that two workers on the fourth floor of the building were recharging several fire extinguishers, when one of the fire extinguishers exploded near the workers," said Andrew Rudansky, DOB press secretary. "Our investigation determined that the recharging of fire extinguishers was not related to the active construction project ongoing inside of the building."

The US Postal Service said the incident involved a contractor and not USPS employees or customers.

"We can offer only limited information at this time. However, we can confirm no postal personnel were injured in this incident, and we are thankful for postal emergency personnel and postal police who responded quickly to the site of this accident. There is no impact on mail processing that is conducted in this facility," said USPS spokesperson Xavier Hernandez in an email statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with these workers at this time. Customers cannot access this facility. The incident involved a contractor." He declined to comment further.

UPDATE: The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it was investigating the incident including employer Nordest Services, LLC. A man who answered a number listed for Nordest Services hung up on a reporter.

The Morgan General Mail Facility postal building occupies the entirety of the block of West 29th to West 30th streets between 9th and 10th avenues. Tishman Speyer has been building out 320,000 square feet of commercial office space there on the upper floors for tenant Dentsu Aegis Network, according to the New York Post.

“We are deeply saddened by today’s tragedy and extend our thoughts and prayers to the worker’s family, friends and co-workers.  Tishman Speyer is committed to ensuring the ongoing safety and health of the workers at our construction sites.  The contractor was conducting work in support of the U.S. Postal Service's ongoing operations when this tragic incident occurred," Tishman Speyer said in a statement.

Governor Andrew Cuomo had ordered all non-essential construction to halt during the coronavirus pandemic on March 27th. The Tishman Speyer project was on the city's list of approved essential projects, the DOB said.

Callers to 311 have complained that construction at the location was ongoing without proper precautions: “THEY ARE DOING CONSTRUCTION ON THE FACADE OF THE BUILDING, WITHOUT PROPER GEAR AND THEY ARE NOT HONORING SOCIAL DISTANCING,” one caller reported last week in a complaint documented at one of the massive site's street addresses, 333 Ninth Avenue.

Another caller complained on April 25th that “MAIL FACILITY IS DOING WORK ON WEEKENDS WHEN THEY SHOULD NOT BE. I HAVE VIDEOS OF THEM WORKING ON WEEKENDS WHEN THEY SHOULD NOT BE, AND ALSO ON DUST BLOWING ON MY WINDOW LEDGE.”

In October, Tishman Speyer bought a 99-year lease for the ten-story building’s top six floors from the US Postal Service, which continues to use the lower floors, the Post said.

The DOB referred further inquiries to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.

While police could not immediately confirm this accident was related to the Morgan General site death, two police officers driving a NYPD vehicle T-boned a woman driving at the intersection of West 25th Street and Ninth Avenue Wednesday morning, an NYPD spokesperson said. The woman was taken to the Lenox Health Greenwich Village facility, and the officers taken to Bellevue Hospital. None had life-threatening injuries, according to police.

UPDATE: This story has been updated with information from the DOB, USPS, OSHA and Tishman Speyer. Based on information from NYPD, a previous version of this story incorrectly reported the accident as construction-related. The story also reported the construction site was non-essential. The DOB said the 341 Ninth Avenue site is in fact on its map of approved construction sites but listed as "341 9 Avenue."